As a new year is upon us, I am changing my perspective on one thing that motivates me. Fear. I am motivated by fear of failure. At work, I am motivated by the fear of failing my bosses, my doctors (I work at a hospital), my coworkers. At home, I don’t ever want to fail my wife or kids. Fear is unhealthy and should not be a motivator for anyone!

This year, I am refusing to be motivated by fear. I will now be motivated by FAITH. Faith in my abilities to be the strong employee that I know I am. God has given me the ability to do my job very well. Knowing this, why not be motivated by faith in my skills and abilities.

As for home, I have faith in most of my skills. I still have much growing to do in the area of husband and father. However, I need to have faith in the skills I have and use them to the best of my ability.

Despite an unfortunate choice at a recent halloween party, Kitna is the next sports star to come out of the Christian closet (even the linked article references his faith). In a society where being a Christian does not always carry a positive weight, it seems there are more and more stories of Christian athletes these days. From LT to the whole Rockies organization to Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, and now Kitna, in yesterday’s SI Players feature, sporting a hat with a cross on it:

SI: Why he insisted on wearing this hat in his Players picture:
Kitna: I had a religious conversion in the mid-1990s. People tell me you can’t mix sports and your faith, and blah, blah, blah… I’m not going to stop. My authority is Jesus Christ, and he tells me in Matthew 28 to go throughout the land and preach the gospel. That is my job.

Cool. Go Lions…. I’d be interested in hearing his 180 story, but alas, he hasn’t yet completed one of my 180 interviews…

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see. For by it the people of oldreceived God’s commendation.By faith we understand that the worldswere set in order at God’s command,so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faithhe was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faithhe still speaks, though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death, and he was not to be found because God took him up. For before his removal he had been commended as having pleased God. Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regardconstructed an ark for the deliverance of his family. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Thank you to each of you that have supported the AC180 family and specifically our brother Stefan Tarapchak. Below is a post directly from Stef’s site updating everyone on the results of his surgery today. Stef’s wonderful wife Sandi has taken over the reigns of his blog while he is recovering. We want to take this time to again thank you for your prayers, for spreading the word and for supporting the entire AC180 family. Please continue to lift Stef and his family in your prayers and let us never forget to give God the glory, the honor and the praise! Continue reading →

Wouldn’t it be so nice if there were spiritual steroids, something that would boost up our spiritual life? Something that would give us an instant understanding of God and great faith with him with just an injection. Just like steroids we wouldn’t have to do anything to get big “spiritual muscles”. Of course there is nothing that can do that, we have to workout our spiritual muscles. We have to get out and do something so our faith gets deeper.

There is no instant faith substance. It takes time but sometimes we get lazy. If you have ever started a membership to a gym you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. You start off with great intentions to get in better shape but after a while you get lazy and you stop going as often. If you still go to the gym the same amount of time that you did your first week of your membership that is great but it is tough to do that. It would be easier to sit around than go to the gym but then you wouldn’t get any better health. Continue reading →